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Friday, February 29, 2008

Well it looks like we might be getting in for the opening of bugg season. At home the vis is only 4m with lots of brown water up north. So if the east does not blow too hard we will be in for some diving.

Down south the water is looking a whole lot better, some places are already 6-8m!!!

Well the swell has finally subsided, and will flatten off more through the day. The sea is still a little green and undiveable, and unfortunately the south is not going to be very strong today so I dont think the sea is going to clean up in a hurry.

That said I have seen the north east clean things up lately, so for all you pillages of crayfish you might just get lucky. Saturday is the start of the new bugg season and I am sure that every dog and his cat is going to be frothing to club da buggs. Like I said there might be enough vis to grovel a few out on Saturday.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

The swell is still smashing the coast! There were some waves this morning but nothing special. It might get better on the lower tide. I am sure Durban beach front is going nuts!!

Its been ages since we dived at home ... it just has not been our season. The down side is that we are missing out on the best time of the year for quality fish!

Iain Ewing braved the swell and dived off the Bluff ... check his report:

Got out two beaut queen fish on Sunday 8 and 9kgs. Started with Garrick and Craig. Headed to Umkomass but the swell was cooking! To big to take the risk of launching so we headed back to Durbs and launched from Durban ski boat club. Gnarly launch and headed out to No1 in 28m of water. The water was BLUE to begin with but after three south north drifts the kak water started to move in. Binned the dive and went to have breakfast at DUC. We met Shane and two other divers who had got fish round the bluff. FK so we rested for an hour and launched again! Hehehe

Arriving around the bluff and clean blue juice! Top15m was very clean with the vis dropping dowm to about 3/4m on the bottom. Not sure if it was a thermocline or from the beeg swell running [ we have a little cyclone sell here at the mo] Guys where doing some filming of tow in surfing as we where trying to launch! Hehe

Craig did well getting out fish. Queenies pick handle and few cuda.. We all got taxed badly, I lost fish to the ever present [massive] zambos that where swimming in the murk below us on every drift. Got some good advise from Craig and did not let me fish get into the murk after shooting them. I shot both fish off the backs of zambos, the queens where swimming next two and behind the sharks. As soon as a fish was shot the zambos went shipo on payday! Very eerie trying to dive into the murk, I have never seen shark action that intense on the bluff! Or that close to land! But the fish where thick so that may explain it!

The other boys saw tunny and had shots at snoek and cuda. I dropped a good cuda on the last drift.

Nice drift for a south north reverse currant.

Sweet

L8rIain

A west is supposed to pull in and sort things out tomorrow ..... lets hold thumbs!!

Monday, February 25, 2008

Flip the cutoff low south of Madagascar is still pumping the swell. This morning was a solid 6ft on the big sets and it was still breaking on the high tide.

The swell strength is incredible on this swell that we are experiencing, it is interesting to notice the difference between wind swell and a 'deep ocean' swell.This morning I went surfing and got my ass kicked a good couple times. The water was moving very fast today. I have been surfing the swell the last few days, but today the swell was quicker than usual.

It was probably a combo between there being less resistance to the swell on the high tide. And the strong swell.

Anyway I had a couple over head waves that crushed me, One I did not even get to the bottom! I free fell and did not stick the landing. On another wave I got near the bottom and little 6'0" spun out and I got axed by the lip.

Freak, I got my ass kicked! I would like to blame it on my little board being under gunned. But I have ridden way bigger waves on smaller boards ..... I think it has something to with my fat ass!!!

I have just checked the forecast and guess what .... the swell ain't dropping!! It looks like we will have more swell this week only dieing off on the weekend.

The down side to all this swell is that the banks that were just coming right are going to be totally flattened!!

Friday, February 22, 2008

We Missed it!!At the beginning of the week the sea was looking epic, blue blue blue ..... then this swell came along. I thought, "well how long will this last? a day or two?"Wrong .... but never mind that the skies opened up and the rivers pumped mud for two days and in an instant the sea looked kuk!

All except one spot ........ flip I went to a building sight up north yesterday morning and to my surprise the water was clean. You could sea the brown river water north and south of this 'last outpost' and it was definably diveable.I was keen for to get in but the north east pumped and all hopes of an arvo dive were erroded. By now the river water has claimed the 'last outpost' and the barbel reign supreme.

The long term forecast is looking bleak with another west coming on Tuesday so hopefully we will get a dive in some time next week.

Flip this is just not how summer is supposed to go down!!!

Interestingly enough looking at last years blog posts we were in a similar situation. With cyclones and the odd dive here and there. The highlight was Andy's Black marlin he shot off Durban on the 23th ...tomorrow a year ago ..... Happy anniversary Andy!!!Go check out the stories:

I am getting sample jackets for sizing. Please contact me on the weekend or next week. We need to nail down sizes and quantities ASAP. The response has been great ...we should have done this a long time ago .....

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Finally got my arse in gear and sorted the Club fees out for the year. And you can now pay your subs, and I have a suprise for you!!!I have made the fees free for 2008 .......da of course there are conditions!!But check it out ...... Salty Club Fees

While I was going through some of the club stuff and there were loads of new club records around this time, so dont luck out with not paying your subs.

Just in case you are worried existing Salty memberships will be valid until the next club meet on the 7th March.

Monday, February 18, 2008

I was away this weekend up at Sordwana, the vis was epic and sea conditions good, but the South East plagued our efforts and we only managed to rustle up some Kakaap.

I heard the guys did dive here at home, not to sure what came out tho ..... probably more than what we got!!

Here is something of interest!!! this week end a year ago was when that guy shot that Marlin off Tiffs. Go and check it out!! The article on the Salties site was also pretty cool.Black Marlin off Tiffs

Every once and a while Barry Paxman from Oz side sends me a pic ....of just another good fish. Its bloody painful ..... I think I am going to live in Oz!!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Well just when we thought that it might come right and we were going to get some love from the sea on Valentines. A very strong swell hit us!! I watched as some seriously strong swells hit the coast yesterday arvo sending all diving hopes down the toilet.

It did mean that we all got some surf .... I suppose thats not the worst thing in the world :-) The waves wernt brilliant as the tides were high and the banks well arnt set up for the swell. That said some waves are better than nothing.

The east is on us already and the swell is dropping, I cant see any diving happening until next week as the next west is only due on Tuesday.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Sorry for the late report, its just that very little is going on!!The water is green and cold 22deg ...cold for this time of the year.And cuta dont like cold water and neither do I. Good news is that the west is blowing!!!

Monday, February 11, 2008

We not too much happened this weekend. The dive was out due to a biggish swell and churned up water. We were hoping for some good waves, but when we got down on Saturday the tide was high and the swell was all broken up.

Iain Ewing Esq was up at Vidal and sent in this report:

Morning my good man.

Very quiet! Only got out 2 small kingies.

Two cuda came out the whole weekend, on fishing boats!

Very clean, south north and wind pumping se.

Still lekka to see the buss tigers on Oscars.

Did not launch ystd as wind giving it!

It does not look like to much is going on the 'good' weather side and we will have to wait and see if conditions are going to improve.

Friday, February 8, 2008

I woke up this morning, hoping to call Morne and get him out of bed for a dive. But my plan was foiled by gusty winds and miserable rain. I checked the real time wind update in Durban and it was blowing 10 knots south. So I crawled back into bed .....

Driving to work the sea was lumpy and not dive able .... well not fun at least. Not sure what the vis is doing, but it did bucket down and I am sure the rivers will have some affect.

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Friday and Saturday went nuts down the south coast. And I think it caught every on by surprise, and the only guys out on the spot that was cooking were a tight group of mates. Wayne and Gary got "lucky" and had a fat jol in the process.

The North Coast was not as 'hot' but the water was good though and some fish did come out. But nothing like the South Coast.

At home we have seen quiet a bit of diving pressure as the guys hungry for some action have been scouting the spots. This has meant that guys travel from far and wide to come climb into some fish, causing some crowding at some spots. I dont blame the guys, we all like to get some fish.

But lets face it, no one likes diving in a crowd, its just unproductive! It amazes me that guys will still swim out to a spot when there are already a couple guys on the spot.

That said the other day ..during the week. I went to a remote local spot, its not a secret or anything, just remote. Warren and myself started diving it many many years ago, and to my knowledge no one else really dived it. Any way my mate who was with me that day, a local chap who lives 5min drive from the spot, was keen to get away from the crowds and head out to the spot.

We got in the water as it was getting light, the current was going the wrong way and by the time we got to the ledge another chap who's name I will not mention, was already there.We kept or distance, just good diving etiquette and actually landed up diving almost off the spot. But hey he was there first!!

About 40min into the dive he comes swimming past in a serious huff. I recognize him (he is a mate who lives an hour south and often comes up here to dive) and say my hello's. Only to be greeted by cursing and that I had "brought every one" along with me. I was actually so gob smacked that I did not even answer him.

This incident was seriously uncalled for, in surfing there is hardcore localism that prevails at some spots. I do hope that this is not going to become the case with our beautiful sport.

That said I have got loads of flack (via the grape vine) by some..... like this chap for this blog. There are some that feel that the blog promotes diving in our area and is ruining the piece of heaven they have.

Funny its the same faces that have been coming diving long before this blog started.And if any one has a problem, please rather just be man enough to stand up. (that's an invitation!)

Friday, February 1, 2008

Its every spearfishermans goal here at home to land a large cuta. Its like the bench mark of spearing ... well almost!! The thing is that you can have all the knowledge and technique down and be unlucky. Or even spend hours in the water, and still unlucky.

Then on the other hand you can be seriously lucky ... let me explain! A number of years ago, long before shooting cuta was a common thing, and we only dreamed of shooting cuta. Some of the mates went diving off a shallow point ... the usual hunting grounds when we were growing up. One of the mates invited a friend who had never dived before to go along and 'check' it out.

The long and short was that this chap in 5 m of water shot a 20 plus kg cuta!! his first ....... and here is the sad and irritating part ..... his last. He never dived again!!!??? Man that ate us up for years, I had spent hours in the water and had never even seen a cuta over 15kg .. man I was bleak!!

And then there is good old persistence and getting out there, some where along the line you will get lucky!! Like yesterday, lucky the fish swam in...yes, but it was also time out there in marginal conditions.

17,48kg Cuta

And here is a real cuta!! Mike Blake with a Big one!We often joke that a cuta is not a cuta unless its over 10kg and a 'real' cuta is over 20kg.